Some Windsor teachers ask questions about pronouns, draw criticism and support at board meeting – Loveland Reporter-Herald

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A controversial start to the school year continued this week at Weld RE-4 School District, where the intentional use of pronouns kicked off the school year in some classrooms this month.

Community members, including students, reacted quickly to the Weld RE-4 school board meeting Monday night.

Some district high school teachers asked students about their pronoun preferences during the first week of school, according to a spokesperson for Weld RE-4. The district opened its doors to students on August 11.

Jackson Woods, a student at Windsor High School, was among a small group of students who attended the meeting in the high school auditorium. Woods told the board as an LGBT student which stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, teachers’ questions create a comfortable learning environment.

“It lets you know you’re in a safe space, where you can be respected, and that’s one of our star qualities here in Windsor: strength, trust, responsibility, respect,” said Woods. “Anything other than respecting students for who they are and how they identify would be a step in the wrong direction. It is a question of human decency.

According to the Center for Inclusion and Social Change at the University of Colorado Boulder, pronouns are one of the ways we portray our identities.

When someone asks you to use their pronouns, they’re asking you to respect their identity, the centre’s website said.

The center says it’s never safe to assume someone’s gender, and living a life where people will naturally assume the correct pronouns for you is a privilege not everyone is familiar with.

Choosing to ignore or disrespect someone’s pronouns is not only an act of oppression, but can also be seen as an act of violence, according to the center.

Not everyone who has approached the board agrees with the need or legitimacy of asking for pronouns in schools.

District resident Katie Villines asked council why a question about pronouns is worth asking in class. Villines said she was a conservative Christian woman who recognized both sexes. Villines added questions about use in schools creates additional division and opens doors to bullying.

These should be kept outside of the school and the classroom, Villines said. A math, English, history or science teacher should not ask to identify pronouns. No one needs to identify themselves to learn.

Weld RE-4 spokeswoman Lisa Relou said the district has no pronoun policy and there is no pending action on the matter for the council.

A Windsor high school graduate who works with LGBTQ + youth in northern Colorado challenged Villines’ point of view. Kimberly Chambers, educator, activist and community leader from Fort Collins, is the director of SPLASH Youth of Northern Colorado and the founder and trainer of NoCoSafeSpace.

SPLASH Youth of Northern Colorado is a non-profit organization that has been working since 2015 to provide resources and create a support system for LGBTQ + youth. NoCoSafeSpace is an organization that organizes community events and offers LGBTQIA + inclusion training for different audiences. LGBTQIA + stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual.

Through her work with SPLASH Youth, Chambers said she saw a 63% increase from 2017-19 in students in the Windsor and Severance areas who participate and are interested in the organization’s programs.

In 2017, 38 children who reported a Windsor or Severance address participated in SPLASH. The number rose to 43 in 2018 and 62 in 2019.

Chambers told the council that LGBTQ youth are at high risk of being bullied and attempted suicides, and that these students’ attendance is inconsistent due to fear for their safety.

Chambers said 43% of students reported being bullied at school, compared to 18% of students who are not LBGTQ.

Chambers said more than 44% of LGBTQ youth have attempted suicide in the past year in Weld County, compared with about 4.7% of their classmates who are not LGBTQ.

We don’t create more LGBTQ people, but what we do as a program is create a space where they can be authentically themselves, Chambers said, adding that she did not have this opportunity when she did. was a student at Windsor High. We need to change the number of our children who want to kill themselves. Seeing yourself represented is really powerful.

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